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The fascinating TV show about Trados Studio errors continues!

The Error occurred in file ... Attempted to divide by zero error appears when you try to import a WSXZ package. The error is rare: Google knows about it by hearsay, and even if you use the link, you will find the description of termbase issues, but the real reason turned out to be different.

The exact origin this issue is unknown, but it is related to some problems with the XLF file structure. Surprisingly, the problematic XLF file itself gets opened as intended (in our case).

First, you should inform your client about the issue. If the client is unavailable or has no idea about how to solve it, perform the operations below. Their common purpose is to retrieve the XLF file from the package and translate it separately. The order of actions is as follows:

• Rename the package file: replace the WSXZ extension with ZIP or just add the ZIP extension.
• Unzip the resulting ZIP archive.
• Manually create a project in Trados Studio with the name repeating the name of the source package and the same language direction.
• Specify the XLF file from the unzipped archive as a file for translation.
• In the project, create an empty translation memory and import the TMX file from the unzipped archive into it.
• If the unzipped archive contains a TBX file, connect it as a termbase. You need to convert it from TBX to SDLTB first—we will tell you how to do it in one of the future posts because this one is already getting huge :)
• Namely, translate the project as usual.
• Put the translated XLF file instead of the XLF file with the same name into the unzipped archive without changing its structure.
• Make an archive out of the unzipped ZIP archive.
• Change the ZIP extension back to WSXZ. Then, you will probably have to either upload the package to SDL WorldServer (if you have done everything correctly, the server will accept it) or send it to your client, depending on your procedures.
• Profit.

The instruction seems long, but it takes actually longer to write than do what it tells: it is important to understand the purpose of each action though. And if your XLF file is small and the translation memory does not reduce the amount of work, you can translate it by opening in Trados Studio directly, i.e., even without creating a project.

If you know a more humane method, please share.

Sometimes, Trados Studio gives a mysterious message while importing a package:

Given that, it doesn’t import the package, the project doesn’t appear in the list, and it is impossible to work. At the same time, the System Volume Information folder is in the drive indeed, but it is hidden, and who knows how it is connected with Trados Studio projects.

It is not entirely clear what causes this error; however, it’s quite easy to fix:

• Close Trados Studio.
• Delete the UserSettings.xml file in the Trados Studio folder. It is usually located in the c:\Users\[USER NAME]\AppData\Roaming\SDL\SDL Trados Studio\[Trados Studio version] folder.
• Start Trados Studio.
• Re-import the package.

This method works in Trados Studio 2015 and 2017, but it has to work in other versions too.

Trados Studio is a source of numerous errors, which sometimes turn out to be quite exotic. Troubleshooting methods are [or should be] described in the help section of the SDL portal. Many of them are gathered by hashtag #tradosstudio on our website.

If you encounter a mysterious error, try checking the main trouble spots before diving into help sections and forums. The general method for removing puzzling errors in Trados Studio elaborated in the process of suffering lots of bumps and bruises looks like as follows:

• Check that the general length of the path to the SDLXLIFF files of the project is not too big. The total length should not exceed 255 symbols.
• Check that the names of the folders and files do not contain symbols that are not inherent to the languages you usually work with (hieroglyphs, letters of RTL languages, all kinds of letters with superciliary and suprailiac dashes, circles, etc.). Studio is suspicious of them. For example, the The specified project name is invalid. The name should not contain any invalid characters such as: \ / : * ? " < > | error is caused by the presence of Cyrillic symbols with wrong character encoding in the project name.
• Check that the project files, particularly SDLXLIFF and SDLTM, are not flying in the air, i.e., are not in the standard folders of Dropbox, Google Drive, etc. When you work directly from the cloud, any change of the file will make Trados Studio and the local cloud application fight to be the first to process it, and the translation process will suffer.
• Check the state of the working translation memory (TM) in the imported package:
• it must be present—sometimes users simply forget to add it;
• it must be active—the corresponding checkbox in the project settings must be checked;
• the language direction of the TM must match that of the current SDLXLIFF file;
• the translation memory file (SDLTM) must not have the Read Only attribute, and in the case of the online memory, a connection to the server must be established.
• Repeat this for the termbase.

* * *

If it doesn’t help, try looking for the cause of the error with the help of an exact search through the text of the error message.

One of the amazing errors in Trados Studio sometimes occurs when you try to save translation—i.e. after you press the CTRL + S key combination. It looks like this:

To a non-specialist, this message yields little information. To be more precise, it is meaningless—one just doesn’t have a clue. Moreover, Trados Studio doesn’t allow saving files, and it seems to you that the results of your work are lost.

Hold your horses and don’t import the Trados Studio package again! If you do this, the results of your work will be lost indeed.

According to our experience, this error only occurs when several package files have been opened simultaneously with the Include subfolders flag set:

The way out is to open files one by one, not “in bulk.” In this case, Trados Studio saves the changes “properly.”

Thus, if you face this error, the algorithm of saving the performed translation is as follows:

• Close the files without changing them (actually, you don’t have another option at this stage).
• Remove the Include subfolders flag.
• Open the documents one by one, fill the target with your translation from the translation memory by replacing the existing translation, if there is one, with it using the CTRL + T key combination. (You have been confirming segments through CTRL + ENTER while translating, haven’t you? We hope you have; otherwise, this method won’t work.)
• Save the documents the usual way—by pressing CTRL + S. 

While working in Trados Studio (and with texts in general), one has to perform numerous copy and paste operations through pressing CTRL+C and CTRL+V key combinations (you don’t copy texts with the help of your mouse, do you?). Translators are constantly looking up terms in dictionaries, reading specialized articles in the Internet etc.

However, an attempt of doing so sometimes results in Trados Studio displaying a message as follows:

In other words, for some reason Trados Studio refuses to copy a text fragment to clipboard.

Usually, this error is caused by another program (for example, Punto Switcher or a clipboard manager) “fighting” with  Trados Studio for the right to be the first to run the copy command.

The easiest method to get rid of this error is to copy the fragment again, taking your time :) Mostly, it is enough.

If you want to get rid of it completely, you’ll have to remove or disable the competitor program.

We keep on studying Trados Studio bugs features.

Trados Studio allows to open many SDLXLIFF files at once. To do this, you have to check Include subfolders in the Files mode at the left:

Then at the right, in the file list, select several files having the SHIFT key pressed or select all files in the package at once by the CTRL+A command, right-click, and choose Open For Translation (or Open For Review—depends on what you are going to do) in the drop down menu:

In this, all segments of all the opened files will appear as a single longread as if it were a single gargantuan document.

However, if one presses the CTRL+H key combination to open the Find and Replace window for massive correction, Trados Studio occasionally gets exasperated and gives out this message—yielding little information, as usual:

What it is that Studio is mad about remains unclear. It has been noticed that this message appears following the attempt to open an autocorrect dialog box.

The solution is easy: you should take advantage of the fact that autocorrect and search boxes are technically different tabs of the single window though called out with the help of different commands. Thus, open the search box first by pressing CTRL+F:

As a rule, there are no problems with that. Then just choose the second tab, Replace:

It is notable that this second tab may even not appear after calling up the search box. But it appears when you press CTRL+TAB.